The Lakefront Burnham Promised: A One-Hundred-Year Plan, Half Built
An eighteen-thirty-six commissioners' map promised Chicago's lakefront would stay public. Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett drew a comprehensive plan across it in nineteen oh nine. This walk reads which chapters got built, which got compromised, and which were never built, from Millennium Park to the only one of five planned offshore islands that exists.
Start
Cloud Gate, Millennium Park: The Newest Chapter on the Oldest Promise
Cloud Gate, Millennium Park: The Newest Chapter on the Oldest Promise
Anish Kapoor's polished steel sculpture, constructed two thousand four to two thousand six, on the roof of an East Randolph Street parking garage above the former Illinois Central rail yard. The twenty-four-acre park opened July sixteenth, two thousand four, ninety-five years after Burnham's Plan.
Crown Fountain: The Wall Against the Loop
Jaume Plensa, two thousand four. Two fifty-foot glass-brick LED towers flanking a black-granite reflecting pool. Cost seventeen million dollars. The faces of one thousand Chicagoans cycle on the inward LED faces.
Buckingham Fountain: The Plan, in One Object
Edward H. Bennett, co-author of the nineteen oh nine Plan of Chicago, designed this fountain for the centerline of Grant Park. Opened May twenty-sixth, nineteen twenty-seven; dedicated August twenty-sixth, nineteen twenty-seven. Inspired by the Latona Fountain at Versailles, twice the size.
Soldier Field: The Compromise the Plan's Lakefront Took
Holabird and Roche, nineteen twenty-four. Opened October ninth, nineteen twenty-four as Grant Park Stadium; renamed Soldier Field on November eleventh, nineteen twenty-five as a memorial to U.S. soldiers killed in World War One. The two thousand three retrofit cost the building its National Historic Landmark designation, formally withdrawn February seventeenth, two thousand six.
Field Museum: The Plan's First Museum, Built by Burnham's Firm
Opened May second, nineteen twenty-one, on the Museum Campus site. Architect Peirce Anderson of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, the successor firm to D. H. Burnham and Company. The Plan called for a clustered lakefront museum complex; the Field was the first of three to land.
Shedd Aquarium: The Cluster Completes Itself
Opened May thirtieth, nineteen thirty. Architect Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, the same Burnham-successor firm. Donated by John G. Shedd, president of Marshall Field and Company, who pledged in nineteen twenty-four and died before completion.
Adler Planetarium: The Easternmost Building Downtown
Ernest A. Grunsfeld Jr., nineteen thirty. Opened May twelfth, nineteen thirty. The first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. The dodecagonal Art Deco building sits on the peninsula connecting Grant Park to Northerly Island.
Northerly Island: The One Island of Five, Three Times Built
Construction began nineteen twenty after a twenty-million-dollar bond issue; substantially complete nineteen twenty-five. Hosted Century of Progress exhibits nineteen thirty-three to thirty-four. Converted to Meigs Field, opened December twelfth, nineteen forty-eight; demolished overnight March thirtieth to thirty-first, two thousand three. Reopened as a nature reserve in two thousand fifteen.
Best Time to Visit
Late spring through early autumn is the strongest window. Buckingham Fountain runs May through October and rests in winter; the Museum Campus and Northerly Island are open year-round but the long walk down the lakefront is best in mild weather. Weekday mornings are quieter at Millennium Park; weekends draw heavy crowds at Cloud Gate and Crown Fountain. The Buckingham Fountain water-and-light show runs at the top of each hour after dark from late May through mid-October, and catching the eight or nine p.m. show at Stop three is the strongest sensory experience the corridor offers. Winter walking is doable but the lakefront wind off Lake Michigan is serious; dress for it.
Pro Tips
- •Stop one anchors under Cloud Gate. The reflection reads strongest in late afternoon when the sun is low and the skyline is fully lit; mornings show the same skyline against a softer sky. Both work.
- •Stop three anchors on the southwest basin of Buckingham Fountain for the lake-horizon vector. If you can time your walk to be there at the top of an hour after dark from May through October, the water-and-light show is the corridor's signature spectacle.
- •Stop four anchors on the west colonnade of Soldier Field from Museum Campus Drive. You do not need a ticket for the exterior reading. The interior is only open on event days or guided tours.
- •Stops five through seven walk the three museums in a triangle on the Museum Campus. Each charges admission for interiors. All three exteriors are free, and the audio works without entering. Each museum has free-admission days for Chicago residents; check fieldmuseum.org, sheddaquarium.org, and adlerplanetarium.org for current schedules.
- •Stop eight is at the south end of the Northerly Island peninsula, about seven hundred metres south of the Adler entrance. The path is paved and flat. The nature-reserve plantings are at their best mid-summer through early autumn; in spring and winter the view is more austere but the historical layering reads just as cleanly.
- •For an early exit at Stop five, the Roosevelt Red Line station is about ten minutes northwest on foot from the Field Museum. To return from Stop eight to downtown, walk back to Roosevelt or take the one-forty-six bus along the lakefront. The walk back from Northerly Island to the Roosevelt station is about one and a half kilometres.
- •If you want a single book on this material, Lois Wille's Forever Open, Clear and Free, University of Chicago Press nineteen seventy-two, second edition nineteen ninety-one, is the canonical history of the lakefront's protection. Carl Smith's two-thousand-six The Plan of Chicago is the canonical history of the Plan itself. Timothy J. Gilfoyle's two-thousand-six Millennium Park is the canonical institutional history of the most recent chapter you walked through at Stops one and two.
Safety & Precautions
- The walk crosses several busy streets, including Michigan Avenue at Stop two and the Roosevelt Road / Columbus Drive crossings approaching Stop three. Use crosswalks and the pedestrian signals; downtown Chicago traffic is dense and quick.
- The Buckingham-Fountain-to-Soldier-Field segment is the longest single walking stretch, about one and a half kilometres. If your legs ask for a break, the Roosevelt Road bus runs along the same axis and the lakefront path has benches.
- The lakefront wind off Lake Michigan is serious year-round. In summer it cools the walk; in winter it can be punishing. Layer for the conditions, especially for Stop eight at the exposed south end of Northerly Island.
- Museum Campus and Northerly Island have very few covered shelters once you are past the institution doors. If the weather turns, the Adler lobby, the Shedd entrance, and the Field Museum's south steps are the nearest covered stopping points.
- Cloud Gate at Stop one and Crown Fountain at Stop two draw heavy crowds, especially on summer weekends. The audio works from the edge of either plaza if the centre is packed; you do not need to stand directly under the Bean or between the towers.
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